Monthly Archives: November 2013

Prince George’s County voted on Wednesday to join Montgomery County in dramatically raising the minimum wage, approving a measure that would increase the hourly rate to $11.50 by 2017 from the current $7.25.

12 Reasons to Raise Minnesota’s Minimum Wage
1. The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, or $15,080 a year for a full-time worker, is not enough to meet basic
needs—not for an individual or a family. At the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, a couple with two children
would have to work 155 hours a week to meet basic needs. At normal full-time hours, each parent would need to
earn $14.03 an hour to meet basic needs. An individual with no children would need to earn $11.82 an hour.1
2. Historically costs rise over time, and a dollar today buys less than a dollar a year ago, ten years ago, or forty years
ago. If the federal minimum wage had kept pace with inflation and maintained it’s purchasing power since 1968, it
would today be over $10.70 an hour, or $22,256 a year for a full-time worker.2
3. When wages drop below living costs, families can’t buy what they need, and local businesses can’t find enough
customers. A higher minimum wage will help Minnesota families meet basic needs and help the economy maintain
robust activity. Raising Minnesota’s minimum wage to $9.50 an hour will pump some $472 million a year in
consumer spending into the state economy.
4. In Minnesota, raising the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour would mean better wages for 357,000 workers. About
77 percent of workers who would see a wage increase are age 20 or older, and 33 percent are married or are parents.
Some 137,000 children would benefit from increased parental income. About 57 percent of workers who would see a
raise are women.3
5. What about preserving jobs? A growing number of economic studies show that increasing the minimum wage
preserves jobs and may even stimulate small net increases in jobs. A nationwide study shows no job loss resulting
from minimum wage increases from 1990 to 2006, even where a county on one side of a state border has a higher
minimum wage than a county on the other side. 4
6. How is it that the minimum wage preserves jobs? Economic studies show that the cost to employers of a typical
minimum wage increase is small relative to general business costs and that there are many channels, other than
layoffs, through which employers absorb the increase. These other channels include reduced turnover, more
balanced wages top-to-bottom, and increased revenue from stronger local consumer spending.5
7. In Minnesota, teens make up less than a quarter of workers who would be affected by a minimum wage increase
to $9.50 an hour. Economists find that minimum wage increases over the past two decades have not contributed to
teen unemployment.6
8. Minimum wage is a big business issue. The majority of low-wage workers nationwide, including minimum wage
workers, are employed by profitable large corporations. Among the nation’s fifty largest employers of low-wage
workers as of 2011, 92 percent were profitable for the past year and 75 percent had higher revenues than before the
recession.7
JOBS NOW Coalition – Saint Paul, Minnesota – http://www.jobsnowcoalition.org Minimum Wage 12 Reasons – Page 1
9. For Minnesota’s 116,000 small businesses with 1 to 500 employees, better wages for workers means higher sales,
because working people receiving the increase are apt to spend it immediately and locally, boosting sales at retail
and service outlets and creating new jobs.8
10. According to the US Small Business Administration, 77 percent of Minnesota’s small businesses are owneroperated
with no employees. For these businesses, raising minimum wage is zero cost and will likely boost sales as
local customers working for multinational chains and big box stores get a raise.9
11. What about consumer prices? The retail price effects of minimum wage increases are minimal, with economists
estimating that a wage increase of $1.85 would mean an increase of half a percent or less in living costs for lowincome
households.10
12. Minnesota is a national leader in opposing the tip credit (actually a “tip penalty”). The tip penalty would allow
employers of tipped workers to pay a lower minimum wage, reducing the benefits to working families and to the
state economy.
All of the sources cited here can be found at: http://www.jobsnowcoalition.org/initiatives/labor-standards/minimumwage.
html.
Notes:
1. See the Family Wage and Budget Calculator, JOBS NOW Coalition, at http://www.jobsnowcoalition.org/calculator/
calculator.html.
2. Find today’s value of the 1968 $1.60 minimum wage using the US Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inflation
Calculator at http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm.
3. Analysis of the 2012 Current Population Survey’s Outgoing Rotation Group, conducted by the Economic Policy
Institute exclusively for JOBS NOW Coalition.
4. See”Minimum Wage Effects Across State Borders”, Arindrajit Dube, T. William Lester, and Michael Reich,
Review of Economics and Statistics, November 2010.
5. “Why Does the Minimum Wage Have No Discernible Effect on Employment?” John Schmitt, Center for
Economic and Policy Research, 2013.
6. See “Do Minimum Wages Really Reduce Teen Employment”, Industrial Relations, April 2011.
7. See “Big Business, Corporate Profits, and the Minimum Wage”, National Employment Law Project, 2012.
8. See “Case for a Substantial Minimum Wage Hike for Minnesota”, Ann Markusen, Jennifer Ebert, and Martina
Cameron, Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, 2004.
9. See “Small Business Profile, Minnesota”, US Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy, 2013.
10. See “Case for a Substantial Minimum Wage Hike for Minnesota”, Ann Markusen, Jennifer Ebert, and Martina
Cameron, Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, 2004.
JOBS NOW Coalition – Saint Paul, Minnesota – http://www.jobsnowcoalition.org Minimum Wage 12 Reasons – Page 2

Walmart workers walked off the job at two stores in Maryland on Tuesday, one in Columbia and another in Laurel, and are expected to strike at another store in Landover Hills. The strikes come a day after one in Miami and makes nine strikes total for the month of November.